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FOR all those who have the courage and commitment to learn English so that we can understand your countries a little more clearly, we thank you sincerely.*************************************

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CHINESE NEW YEAR

The photo here and at left: Olga.

MISS RAI’S CLASS

Here are the students that wrote this wonderful story for you. One of the students has been studying English only 1 month. But most of them have been studying about 2 years. The young people here study in a training school called Perfect English. The students speak only English while at school and so they learn very quickly.

“A time to be happy”

Spring Festival is the most important holiday in China. It is a time for everyone to be happy. — Miss Rai’s English class

CHINESE NEW YEAR or Spring Festival usually happens in late January to early February according to the Western calendar. But in China the date is always January first according to the lunar calendar.

During Spring Festival Chinese people traditionally eat dumplings. Some people eat meat dumplings and some people eat vegetable dumplings. Some families have a tradition where a coin is put into one dumpling. The person who finds the dumpling with the coin will have good luck all year. Another tradition is to eat sweets for New Year’s because it represents having a happy New Year.

In the morning people set off firecrackers but at night they light fireworks. Spring Festival is always very noisy but also beautiful because of the fireworks. Many families also have a tradition of giving “hongbao” (red envelopes). The red envelopes have money inside. It is the custom for older people to give hongbao to younger people, but this tradition can vary from family to family.

A popular way to spend Spring Festival night is to watch “Chunwan”, a television show that happens only once a year. It’s a popular variety show. Many families also put up “chunlian” on their front doors. Chunlian are red papers with good luck sayings that are placed on either side of the front door and above the door. It is believed that the chunlian keeps evil away.

— Miss Rai’s class, China

Please enjoy these wonderful performances from the Chunwan program, 2013.